Once Again
by Tabula Rasa
Summary: Kaiba Seto meets a girl in the hospital when Mokuba fractures his ankle. Conversations ensue.


Fic bugged me until I wrote it. **Title:** Once Again  
**Rating:** G  
**Fandom:** Yuugiou  
**Category:** General.  
**Summary:** Kaiba Seto meets a girl in the hospital when Mokuba fractures his ankle. Conversations ensue.  
**Warnings:** None  
**Spoilers:** Ancient Egypt arc spoilers, up to the end of the manga as well.  
**Notes:** The dream thing is taken directly from manga chapter 226. Fic headers taken from _Life in a Glass House_ by Radiohead.

  
  
  
_01. well of course I'd like to sit around and chat_

  
Kaiba Seto decided, as he sat in the hospital waiting room, that he thoroughly detested swing sets.

The call had come in the middle of math. Tanaka-sensei wasn't overly fond of cell phones, paticularily when they interuppted a lesson on trigonometrey. Of course, Tanaka-sensei didn't say anything as Kaiba tore out of the class immediatley after a cellphone conversation that had, on Kaiba's end, consisted of a "Hello", a "What the hell do you mean by that?" and a muttered obscenity before hanging up.

A quick car ride had transported him to where he now sat in the waiting room of Domino Hospital. He was the only one sitting on the couch, which was a fact made sure of by his scowling darkly at anyone who came near him who wasn't a doctor.

"Kaiba-san?" This person, however, was a doctor. Glasses, weary expression and the white lab coat. He was holding a clipboard and looking down at the teenage boy.

"How is he doing?" Kaiba demanded.

"Mokuba is doing fine," the doctor replied placatingly. "His ankle is merely fractured, not broken as we originally thought."

"So I may take him home now?" Kaiba stood up, folding his arms.

"In a few hours, yes," the doctor said evenly.

Kaiba's black scowl returned. "Why?" he demanded.

"Just hospital regulations," the doctor explained, while not really explaining at all. He seemed satisfied with this and turned to walk away.

"What room is he in?" Kaiba called after him.

"He's getting a cast put on right now," the doctor replied before turning the corner.

Kaiba's mood only darkened. He left his spot in the waiting room to go and find some coffee.

  
  
The mission for coffee had proved successful and Kaiba was back on his place on the couch with a cup of black caffeine in his hand. It was searing hot, something that had ceased to bother him long ago. The only thing that was annoying him about the cup of coffee was the fact that it tasted as if it had sanitizer in it.

The doctor from before had been through the waiting room a few more times, but hadn't come near Kaiba again. Kaiba sneered to himself. As if he had been afraid of the boy, the doctor had made himself scarce whenever Kaiba had gotten up off of the couch to approach him.

"How is the White Dragon kaa serving you, Priest Seth?" The voice was polite, yet the words sent a jarring shock through Kaiba, causing him to spill a bit of the rather hot coffee onto his hand.

He cursed and then directed his glare upwards at the person who had dared to speak to him. Standing in front of him was a girl around his age. Everything about her was pale, if not white. Her hair was a pale blue and her skin was nearly paper-white, matching the regulation hospital gown she wore. Her eyes were a brilliant blue and holding a quizzical look.

"Excuse me?" The meaning of her words sunk in then. "What do you mean by White Dragon kaa?" He was instantly suspicious.

"Or have you given up your kaa-collecting?" the pale girl tilted her head to one side. Her eyes were surprisingly large and seemed unfocused.

"I have no idea what you mean," Kaiba said brusquely.

"Did the Pharaoh put an end to it?"

Kaiba's eyes narrowed. "Are you another one of those who believes in the so-called magic of the 'Sennen Items'?" He was scornful now.

The girl's expression was one of slight hurt now.

Good, Kaiba thought, taking a sip of overly bitter coffee. Maybe now those idiots would leave him alone. Although, Yuugi and his friends hadn't said anything to do with magic, pharaohs, Pegasus's 'magical' eye or Yuugi's puzzle since they had returned from Egypt.

"Kisara, there you are." A matronly woman was approaching, smiling. Her gaze seemed fixated on the girl.

"I was talking to Priest Seth," the girl - Kisara - pointed limply at Kaiba, smiling.

"Of course you were," the woman, obviously a nurse, kept smiling. Her expression turned slightly apologetic as she turned to Kaiba. "I didn't think she was wandering around. Now, Kisara, why don't you say good-bye to Priest Seth? It's time for your medication."

"Farewell, Priest Seth," Kisara said obediently. "You will tell me if the White Dragon kaa is behaving?"

It figured. Medication. The girl was clearly insane, Kaiba thought as Kisara allowed herself to be led away by the nurse.

"Kaiba-san?" The doctor was back again. This time, he wasn't alone. "You can take your brother home now."

Mokuba grinned tiredly up at his brother. "Look, 'niisama! I have crutches!"

Kaiba smiled back. "Come on, you should lie down."

"I don't wanna lie down," Mokuba argued, hobbling forward on his crutches. "I wanna learn how to use my crutches better."

"But your ankle will heal faster if you stay off of it," Kaiba pointed out as they headed out to where Kuriyama was waiting with the car.

"Masaya and Jun'll be jealous and want to try my crutches," Mokuba was keeping up a steady stream of chatter. "Hey, niisama! I don't have to do gym class now!"

  
  
_02. don't talk politics and don't throw stones_

  
Kaiba Seto was beginning to dislike the hospital. He was sitting in the waiting room once more, while Mokuba was being checked up by the doctor - Ishida-sensei, if the nametag was anything to go by. Kaiba had only been in a hospital a few times in his life. Once, when Mokuba was born. A second time when he had fractured his wrist, playing some sort of sports game. Both of those memories were blurred with time. Yet the third time was clear. That was when his parents had died in a car crash. Of course, those memories he had buried.

He sat there now, no coffee this time, looking through a newspaper. Specifically, he was looking at the business section, at the recent stock market going-ons.

"Do you still speak to your Pharaoh cousin?" The voice didn't startle Kaiba this time. Kisara sat down beside him, still in the stark white hospital gown. Her expression this time wasn't as dreamy as before.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Kaiba said shortly, his attention still focused upon the stock market.

"You aren't called Priest Seth anymore," Kisara said. Kaiba glanced at her. She was working her hair into several small braids. She smiled at him. "Kaiba Seto, you are now. No longer a priest of the Items?"

"You're speaking nonsense," Kaiba snapped.

"Am I?" Kisara inquired. "They think so. They say there's something wrong with my brain and that's why they keep me here. In the mental patient ward. They don't believe me when I say there's nothing wrong, I just can't differentiate between here and there sometimes." She shrugged, shoulders rising and falling delicately. She was really very thin, unhealthily so.

"There?" Against his better instinct, Kaiba asked the question.

"Egypt. Where you're a priest who rescued me from the crowd." Kisara smiled. "Handsome man saves me from the monsters."

Kaiba snorted. "Fairy tale nonesense."

"Not literal monsters," Kisara replied thoughtfully. She shifted, tucking her legs beneath her. She picked at the top of one hospital regulation paper slipper. "People all have monsters inside them. All different shapes and sizes and kinds."

Kaiba folded the newspaper neatly and set it back on the small table in the hospital waiting room. This time, it was conspicuously empty, except for him and the female mental patient.

"You have the three dragon cards, don't you?" Kisara asked. "I saw them. And the God Card. They showed the Battle City finals in here one day. Where you faced off against Pharaoh Atem."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "I don't know any pharaohs." 

Kisara smiled ruefully. "You cousin would be sad to hear you speak of him that way."

"I don't have any cousins," Kaiba said sharply.

Kisara shrugged. "It's hard to seperate here from there sometimes. I forget."

  
  
_03. a strange mistake to make_

  
This time, Kaiba didn't really have an excuse to be at the hospital. He thrummed his fingers on the reception desk until the woman looked up at him.

"Yes?" Her eyebrow was raised.

"I'm looking for someone," Kaiba said.

"Name?"

"Kisara."

"Any last name?" The woman was focused upon the computer now, her fingertips hovering over the keyboard, ready to type.

Kaiba hesitated. "I don't know it."

"Room 313," the woman said. "We only have one person with that as part of their name."

Kaiba withdrew from the reception area/waiting room and waited for the elevator.

"Are they looking over your brother again?" In a move that didn't really surprise him, Kisara was standing in front of the elevator doors when they opened to let Kaiba off on the third floor. This time, she was wearing a white bathrobe overtop of her hospital gown.

"I've been having dreams," Kaiba said. Indeed, he had.

They had started recently, after his last visit to the hospital. They were almost like snatches of memories, little snapshots into a different world.

_"Priests!" Some of the villagers drop to their knees in the presence of two of the Pharaoh's high priests. Seth's eyes narrow as his gaze travel from the kneeling villagers to a form on the ground._

"What did you do to this girl?" Seth's eyes shift back to the villagers as he takes in the damage done to the girl lying on the ground. She has pale skin and hair. Her clothing is ragged.

Mutters ripple through the crowd, yet none seem eager to explain things to the menacing-looking priest.

"Give her some water!" Seth barks the command at the villagers. Instantly, someone runs off to get the requested liquid.

On the ground, the girl coughs a bit and turns her head to look at him. Her eyes, half-closed with dehydration, are a brilliant blue. Rage bubbles in Seth.

"Throwing stones at a weak girl because of her skin colour?" His voice is low and steady, anger barely vibrating through the tone.

"Please forgive us."

"Th-that . . "

Seth ignores the villagers' pathetic attempts at explainations. "Shall I carve the difference of true status into your flesh?" The threat has the impact that it was meant to.

"Th-thank you," the girl mumbles softly as one of Seth's guards helps her to a sitting position.

"Look after this girl. She's obviously weak now," Seth commands his guards, using a gentler voice than he had with the villagers.

The other priest, Shadah makes a strangling sound and Seth turns to him, slightly annoyed.

"What's wrong, Shada . . ." But the question dies on his lips as he notices the glowing Sennen Ankh.

"Her Kaa," Shadah whispers. "It's unfathomed."

Seth's eyes widen as Shadah's voice takes on an awed and reverent tone.

"And I can see it - the creature within her heart," Shadah contines. "Her Kaa conceals a tremendous power - the form of the white dragon!" Seth's eyes seem to widen even more. The white dragon . .

"Snatches of memory?" Kisara asked, as they walk down the hallway. She turned into a room, one that is more homey-feeling than the waiting room. There were drawings on the walls and the chairs and tables are arranged in groups. There were others in there, obviously patients by their attire.

Kaiba sat down in a chair across from her.

"You were a high priest," Kisara said. She began tracing patterns on the couch cushion beside her. "You saved me from villagers."

"Who threw stones at you," Kaiba said.

"You also saved me from falling once," Kisara said. "And then I called the White Dragon kaa." She tilted her head to the side. "Can I see the pictures of them?"

Kaiba narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

Kisara laughed softly. "Honestly, Kaiba Seto. Everyone knows that you carry the three Blue Eyes White Dragon cards around with you. I am merely asking to see them."

Slowly, Kaiba withdrew the cards from the breast pocket of his jacket. He laid them flat on the table between them. Kisara moved forward, her eyes fixed on the cards.

One by one she tapped the images of the dragons. "Ki. Sa. Ra." She smiled up at Kaiba.

  
  
_04. she is putting on a smile_

  
"I'm here to see Kisara," Kaiba said.

The receptionist was the same and she seemed to recognize him. Her expression changed into one of regret.

"I'm sorry, but she's no longer here."

"Excuse me?" Kaiba's tone was frosty.

"Her parents moved her to a different facility," the receptionist said, apologetic.

"Do you know where to?" Kaiba unclenched his hands.

"It's not on record," the receptionist glanced at the computer screen. She pulled something out of a file. "You're Kaiba Seto, right? She said to give this to you when you showed up."

The receptionist handed Kaiba a folded sheet of paper. Its edges were taped together and his name was written on it, in awkward kanji. As well, there were Egyptian heiroglyphics on it. Kaiba blanched slightly as he realized that he could read them.

They said 'High Priest Seth'.

"Thank you," Kaiba said to the receptionist and walked out of the hospital. He peeled the tape off and opened the piece of paper.

It was a drawing of a dragon, white with shining blue eyes. More heiroglyphics were on it.

'The White Dragon Kaa' it said.

Kaiba folded it in half and then half again. He placed it in the breast pocket of his coat, next to the three Blue Eyes White Dragon cards.

  
  
  
  
_[ end ]_


End file.
